Cable television (“CATV”) networks are a known type of communications network that are used to transmit information between a service provider and a plurality of subscriber premises, typically over fiber optic and/or coaxial cables. The service provider may offer, among other things, cable television, broadband Internet and Voice-over-Internet Protocol (“VoIP”) digital telephone service to subscribers within a particular geographic area. The service provider transmits “forward path” or “downstream” signals from the headend facilities of the cable television network to the subscriber premises. “Reverse path” or “upstream” signals may also be transmitted from the individual subscriber premises back to the headend facilities. In the United States, the forward path signals are typically transmitted in the 54-1002 MHz frequency band, and may include, for example, different tiers of cable television channels, movies on demand, digital telephone and/or Internet service, and other broadcast or point-to-point offerings. The reverse path signals are typically transmitted in the 5-42 MHz frequency band and may include, for example, signals associated with digital telephone and/or Internet service and ordering commands (i.e., for movies-on-demand and other services).
Each subscriber premise typically includes one or more power divider networks (which may also be referred to herein as “power dividers”) that are used to divide the downstream signals received from the service provider so that the downstream signal may be fed to a plurality of service ports such as wall outlets that are dispersed throughout the subscriber premise. These power divider networks also combine upstream signals that may be transmitted from one or more of the service ports into a composite upstream signal that is transmitted over the CATV network back to the headend facilities. Televisions, internet modems, set top boxes and the like may be connected to the respective wall outlets.
A recent trend is to use the coaxial cables that are installed throughout most homes, apartments and other subscriber premises as a network that may be used to transmit signals from a first end device that is connected to a first wall outlet in a subscriber premise to other end devices that are connected to other wall outlets in the subscriber premise. An industry alliance known as the Multi-media Over Coax Alliance (“MoCA”) has developed standards which specify frequency bands, interfaces and other parameters that will allow equipment from different standards-compliant vendors to be used to distribute multi-media content over in-premise coaxial cable networks. These standards specify that such “MoCA” content is transmitted over the in-premise coaxial cable networks in the 850 MHz to 1675 MHz frequency band, although many service providers only distribute MoCA content within a narrower frequency band that is above the cable television band, such as, for example, the 1150 MHz to 1550 MHz frequency band. Thus, the MoCA content is transmitted over the in-premise network in a pre-selected MoCA frequency band. The power divider network in the in-premise network may be designed to support communications between its output ports in this pre-selected MoCA frequency band.
Examples of MoCA content that may be distributed over an in-premise coaxial cable network are digital television, video-on-demand programming and digitally-recorded television or music programming. In an exemplary application, such programming may be transmitted via the coaxial cables that run through the walls of a home from a primary set-top box (which may be a full service set top box having a digital television receiver, DVR and/or video-on-demand capabilities, etc.) to less capable, less expensive auxiliary set-top boxes that are installed on other televisions throughout the premises. In this manner, the full capabilities of the primary set top box may be enjoyed at all of the televisions within the residence without having to provide a primary set top box for each television.
A number of MoCA-enabled devices have been proposed which facilitate transmitting signals between wall outlets in a subscriber premise. These devices include (1) signal amplifiers that have power divider networks that are configured to facilitate MoCA communications and (2) MoCA power divider networks. Examples of such MoCA devices are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 8,397,271, U.S. Pat. No. 8,286,209, U.S. Patent Publication No. 2010/0125877, U.S. Patent Publication No. 2010/0146564 and U.S. Pat. No. 8,356,322.